Westpac, CBA and ANZ combined to push the market higher after it fell for most of the day. Short of a fresh catalyst to move shares forward, the market was listless and panicky most of the day until buying of the banks gave investors heart that spilled into buying for BHP Billion to push it higher for the day.
A negative lead from Wall Street and poor economic news from the US were ignored by Australian investors as desperation gave way to hope, that China might be a saviour to the Australian mining market, despite growing, mountainous stockpiles of iron ore on Chinese wharves. And that Australian banks, were getting down to share price levels, where bargain hunters assessed upside as greater than the downside from current bank valuations in Australia.
Asian markets were mixed, with the Nikkei down 0.4% and Hang Seng was up 3.1%.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended the day up 1%, or 30 points, to 3184.5.
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP)was up 16 cents, or 0.6%, to $29.28, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) was up 80 cents, or 1.7%, at $48.30, Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG)was down 16 cents, or 6.3%, at $2.38 and Mirabela Nickel (ASX:MBN)was down 1 cents, to $1.31.
Lihir Gold (ASX:LGL) was down 10 cents, or 3.2%, at $3.05 and Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) was down 65 cents, or 2.1%, at $30.75.
Santos (ASX:STO) was up 65 cents, or 4.1%, to $16.37 and Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) was up $1.18, or 3.3%, at $37.09.
Macarthur Coal (ASX:MCC) was up 2 cents, or 0.8%, at $2.50, Centennial Coal (ASX:CEY) was down 12.0 cents, at $1.62, Arrow Energy (ASX:AOE)was down 2 cents, at $2.56 and Riversdale Coal (ASX:RIV) was up 6 cents, at $3.10.
ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) gained 21 cents, or 1.7%, at $12.74, Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA)was up $1.14, or 4.3%, at $27.78, NAB (ASX:NAB) was up 25 cents, or 1.6%, at $16.28, Westpac (ASX:WBC) was up 55 cents, or 3.5%, at $16.45 and Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) was up 22 cents, or 1.3%, at $17.48.
Retailer Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN) was up 5 cents, or 2.3%, at $2.05 and media group News Corp (ASX:NWS) was down 31 cents, or 3.3%, at $9.05.
The Australian dollar was trading down at 63.90 US cents.
